Bill Cunningham: New York Page #3

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They don't own you.

That's the important thing,

never to be owned.

I know they don't own you.

I know they don't own you.

Money's the cheapest thing.

Liberty and freedom

is the most expensive.

No, you know

what I mean, Richard.

So you asked me... about not falling

into the traps of the rich.

I would think it was my first, uh, partner

in my fashion business.

A woman by the name

of Rebekah Harkness,

a very affluent New York family,

and she was looking to invest

in my hat shop and she did.

But then the army came along...

this is 1951...

I was drafted.

Well, they were appalled that I would go,

and their investment would be on hold.

Who knows what would happen?

I was appalled at them.

I thought, "You're drafted.

This is the country where you live,

who you are. You go. "

Well, they couldn't understand that at all.

Course I went in the army.

I wouldn't think otherwise.

They badgered me and they badgered

my family, and finally...

my aunt and uncle,

whom I lived with here in the city,

I think they returned the money

she had invested which... God...

Maybe it was a thousand dollars?

[Interviewer]

Which was a lot of money then.

To the Harkness family, I don't think

a thousand dollars was a lot of money.

Oh, they tried to have it...

I know what it was...

deducted from my army salary,

which would have taken about ten years,

'cause I don't know what you made...

You got paid maybe $90 a month

or something like that.

Some stupidity.

So my family paid it off,

and then when I got out of the army,

I paid my family back.

[Woman]

Don't take a picture of us.

[Woman #2] I'll break that

f***ing camera over your head.

Yeah, he wanted...

he wanted me...

to come up

and meet my replacement.

Your replacement.

Your...

Yes, you passed

on the torch to me.

You're just a trophy wife.

I was always there

at the beginning.

[John] I've showed her

some of your layouts.

Oh, you teaching, uh...

Uh, I don't teach.

Muffin or is she teaching you?

She's teaching me.

Now, see, you made those

too big, those flowers.

What flowers?

See, that's... that's too big.

Where's the love today, Bill?

Love? Just get the page done.

Show 'em where the love is, Bill.

Show 'em where the love is, right?

Just get the page done.

Winchester.

Winchester.

And he means the gun

off the back shelf of the pickup truck.

John, let me see this one here.

Put your favorite up here.

[Vinson] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You see, it's a little

short coat in here.

[John]

Don't encourage him.

The good thing is he can't

hear me talking about him.

Maybe 190.

I don't know what it was.

Then all of a sudden,

when I don't think he can hear me,

he hears me perfectly well.

What?

Bill's fingerprints are all over

everything he does,

'cause he's never ever, ever sold out

one inch of anything.

When the hat business

was sort of sloughing off,

he was working

for Women's Wear Daily as a...

Writing a millinery column.

Part of his falling out with

Women's Wear Daily...

hadn't to do

with anything really big.

It had to do with this

ethical issue for him,

which was that many of his photographs

were being used for an "In and Out" list,

and his feeling is that

it's all equally in.

That's the reason he's documenting it.

He's incredibly kind.

I don't think we've ever seen

a cruel picture done by Bill,

and certainly he's had an opportunity

to really have done it.

He's chosen never to do it.

He was still working

at Women's Wear,

and he did a piece

on women on the street...

in the same clothes

as the models on the runway.

It was about how incredible women

had their own style...

and what they could do

with the clothes, side by side...

with what the designers did

on the runway,

and they changed his copy

to make fun of the women.

This idea of a valuation of one person

over another, or one image over another,

was not something

that he really subscribes to as a person.

He was so beyond upset.

It was so sad and it...

He didn't think he'd ever get over it,

because he was

so embarrassed and upset...

and really cared about the women

that he had put in this...

in this and what happened.

That was the end of his career

at Women's Wear Daily.

[Mouse Clicking]

Yeah, she's lovely.

[John] Jesus, what'd she...

Just get a garbage bag?

Rubbish bag. Looks like she's

in a rose, a black rose.

[John]

It's a garbage bag.

What the hell

you talking about a rose?

What would you people

from southern New Jersey know?

Oh-ho.

Beautiful woman.

These two are exquisite. Look at them.

[Apfel] It's really

hard to describe oneself...

because I think one lives very often

in other people's visions.

I see myself as the world's oldest living

teenager 'cause I have such a good time,

and I try to get as much kick

out of things as possible.

I have all my little animals, who,

by the way, are very jealous of me,

and so I have to give them jewelry...

otherwise they bite.

I always heard growing up that

Joan Crawford said that...

whenever she went out,

she had to go out as Joan Crawford.

So I took that to heart, and whenever I

go out, I have to be Patrick McDonald.

I have to be the dandy,

and I would never go out...

without my beauty mark,

my eyebrows, my hat.

I would never do that.

We're all canvases.

We're all blank canvases when we get up

in the morning, and we paint ourselves.

Sometimes we're surreal.

Sometimes we're impressionistic.

Sometimes we're modern.

It... It just depends on the day.

This is my, uh,

alphabet outfit, and,

this is another of,

uh, my... my clothing...

that appeared in "On the Street"

column of Bill Cunningham.

I call it "Awning Stripes."

A Scottish plaid outfit.

I don't know which clan

it belongs to.

When I wear this outfit, people smile, and

it kind of cheers them up a little bit.

This is one of my other

lollipop salesman's outfit.

A combination of different plaids

from Scotland.

This used to be

my old sofa, the jacket,

and my pants was...

used to be my ottoman.

These are, uh, the issues

from my appearances...

in Bill Cunningham's

"On the Street" column.

They're laminated so that this will

preserve it for, uh, my grandchildren.

Put this one

in the upper right-hand corner.

Give me these two together.

Lap them together.

Together.

Uh, put the dog back where

the cab is for the minute.

Let me see them again, John.

Now don't get angry.

Jiggle the mouse.

I'm going to jiggle you

right out that damn window.

Why don't you go get your film,

so I can straighten this out?

No, I will. Put it back.

As soon as I get exactly what I want.

[John] Oh, Jesus, give me

strength to deal with you today.

Oh, and we gotta leave room for that damn

three or four lines Web site, some nonsense.

Look at now. They've got the audio

thing going at the Times,

which they pushed me into, and they said,

"Well, a lot of people don't read the paper."

I said, "Okay, I'll do it.

Where do we do it?"

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